{"id":30779,"date":"2015-12-16T06:30:33","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T17:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=30779"},"modified":"2015-12-15T22:25:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T09:25:48","slug":"big-worlds-on-small-screens-rebecca-fisher-discusses-sense-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/12\/16\/big-worlds-on-small-screens-rebecca-fisher-discusses-sense-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Worlds On Small Screens\u2014Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Sense 8”"},"content":{"rendered":"

~ by Rebecca Fisher<\/em><\/p>\n

Introduction:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Not since Orphan Black<\/strong> have I been this engrossed with a television show: its premise, its cast and its method of storytelling. Sense8<\/strong> is the creation of the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix<\/strong>) and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5<\/strong>) and it’s as inventive and unique as their past projects would imply.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally released on Netflix, the twelve-episode first season has been picked up for a second, with five full seasons planned to tell the complete story. According to the creators, the show was inspired by the strange relationship that exists between empathy and evolution in the human race, and was subsequently filmed in nine cities around the world: Chicago, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Seoul, Reykjav\u00edk, Mexico City, Nairobi and Mumbai.<\/p>\n

Premise:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The show is built on a premise that is simple in its design yet complex in its implementation: eight people are born at the exact same time who eventually grow up to share a consciousness. Regardless of the distance between them, they are capable of imparting knowledge and experiences between themselves, whether it be sharing thoughts, feelings, or even temporarily taking over each other’s bodies.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Lito and Sun discover each other<\/em><\/p>\n

Individually they are called sensates, together they are a cluster, and things like language differences and physical distance are no barrier to the bond they share. In this way, the show explores a multitude of themes involving the characters’ diverse genders, races, religions, classes and sexual orientation, and how each one can contribute their unique skills \u2013 whether it be fighting, hacking, acting, driving or musical ability \u2013 to the group.<\/p>\n

Characters:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For a change I’m putting the character category before story, as Sense8<\/strong> is hugely<\/em> character-driven. There are eight main cast members in all, each one with a distinct personality and background. They are:<\/p>\n

Will Gorski, a Chicago police officer who is still haunted by the unsolved murder of a little girl; Riley Blue, an Icelandic DJ with a tragic past; Capheus, a cheerful bus driver in the slums of Nairobi; Nomi Marks, a transgender hacktivist, Lito Rodriguez, a gay actor who must stay in the closet in order to continue getting the roles he wants; Wolfgang Bogdanow, a German locksmith whose family is heavily involved in crime; Kala Dandekar, a beautiful scientist who is engaged to marry a man she doesn’t love; and Sun Bak, a Korean businesswomen prepared to go to prison to protect her family.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>From left: Capheus, Sun, Nomi, Will, Riley, Wolfgang, Kala and Lito<\/em><\/p>\n

All are fascinating characters \u2013 so much so that you could build a show around any one<\/em> of them. Across the twelves episodes we watch as they begin to realize their connection and interact with each using their new abilities, crossing entire continents in order to learn more about one another, and offer assistance when the need arises.<\/p>\n

Story:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The story could very well revolve around these eight people: their fascination with each other, the way their dynamics evolve, and how they learn to enjoy the miraculous bond that grows between them, but the show also includes a storyline involving a secret conspiracy and a threat to the sensates.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Kala visits Wolfgang in Berlin<\/em><\/p>\n

A sinister doctor known only as “Whispers” is hunting our eight main characters, and anyone caught by him ends up strapped to a gurney and put through a forced lobotomy. Although this plot is less interesting than the simple premise of the sensates discovering and exploring their connection to each other, Whispers makes for a threatening antagonist, and his pursuit of the cluster allows for some incredible action sequences in which each sensate contributes their own set of special skills to help the others elude him.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It’s not a show for the faint of heart \u2013 there’s explicit violence, explicit sex and even explicit childbirth, but nothing feels particularly gratuitous (as opposed to \u2013 say \u2013 Game of Thrones<\/strong>, which I’m sure would find a way to insert rape or gratuitous nudity into a scene set at an old persons’ retirement home).<\/p>\n

At its core, this is a story about people from across the world reaching out to offer aid and comfort to each other. And at this point in our collective history, what message could be more powerful and important?
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next Time: “Fantasy Films From the Eighties That Weren’t That Bad.
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s time for a new sub-series and this one is called “Fantasy Films From the Eighties That Weren’t That Bad.” Sure, that sounds like damning with faint praise, but there were some truly awful fantasy movies back then \u2013 and some of the stinkers pretty much sank the genre until it was resurrected with The Lord of the Rings<\/strong> in 2001.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

But these ones… these ones weren’t <\/em>so bad<\/em>.<\/span>
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

About The Reviewer:<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com<\/a>, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com<\/a> and her They\u2019re All Fictional<\/a> blog.<\/p>\n

To read Rebecca\u2019s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding reviews, click on:<\/p>\n

Big Worlds On Small Screens<\/a><\/h3>\n

Rebecca won this year\u2019s Sir Julius Vogel Award<\/a> for Best Fan Writer, for writing including Big Worlds On Small Screens<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

~ by Rebecca Fisher Introduction: Not since Orphan Black have I been this engrossed with a television show: its premise, its cast and its method of storytelling. Sense8 is the creation of the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix) and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) and it’s as inventive and unique as their past projects would imply. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-worlds-on-small-screens-with-rebecca-fisher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30779"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30791,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30779\/revisions\/30791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}